The present invention concerns a respiration therapy apparatus intended for persons suffering from respiratory diseases, for indisposed persons, or for unconscious persons, and employed as a respirator and/or as a drug atomizing apparatus and/or as an oxygen dispensing apparatus conforming to the patient's respiration. The respiration therapy apparatus comprises an oxygen or air supply tube connected to regulating means. An air or oxygen line coming from an oxygen mask or from oxygen whiskers, and an air or oxygen line coming from a drug atomizer are further connected to this regulation means. Alternatively, air or oxygen lines which come from respirator means comprising a mouthpiece, an exhalation valve, a drug atomizer and an injector, are connected to said regulating means, a second one of said air or oxygen lines being directly connected to the injector and a first one of said air or oxygen lines being connected to the drug atomizer, advantageously over a regulating valve, for adding drug spray to the oxygen or air flow.
Various kinds of respiration therapy apparatuses intended for persons suffering from respiratory diseases, for indisposed persons, or for unconscious persons, are known in the prior art, the respiration therapy apparatus then comprising a drug atomizer, a supply pressure source communicating with the drug atomizer for conducting air or oxygen, an injector communicating with the drug atomizer, and separate regulating valves for controlling the atomizing rate of the drug atomizer or the respiration pressure. In drug atomizers of the prior art, the flow rate of the flowing air or oxygen is controllable.
Regulating valves are known in the art through which the air or oxygen can be conducted. It is possible with the aid of electrically controlled magnetic valves, or of magnetic valve controlling means, to effect control of the operating period of the respiration therapy apparatus in conformity with the patient's breathing rhythm. Similarly, it is possible with the aid of separate timer means to effect regulation of the resting period of the respiration therapy apparatus to conform to the patient's breathing rhythm.
Respiration therapy apparatus of the prior art can then be controlled with the aid of press buttons or the equivalent in a manner such that the operation of the respirator is paced to be appropriate for the patient, for instance specifically by pressing a button.
By the same token, respirators are known in the art, e.g. through an earlier Finnish patent application No. 83-0059 of the assignee, where the respirator is used as atomizing means. The period of operation and period of rest of the drug atomizer can be controlled with timer means, or by pacing with finger pressure on a press button, to conform to a breathing rhythm appropriate for the particular patient, and by regulating the atomizing rate of the drug atomizer with the aid of a pressure regulator, provided with a pressure gauge, inserted in the supply pressure line.
It is also previously known that an inhalation dispenser is provided with atomizing commencement time control for the purpose of selecting the time of commencement of atomizing to be advantageous for each individual patient, at the beginning of the inspiration period. This apparatus arrangement is known through the earlier Finnish patent application No. 84-3769 to the same assignee. Through the same Finnish patent application of the assignee, an inhalation dispenser is also known incorporating an inspiration flow rate control for setting a desired magnitude, the inspiration flow rate advantageous for each individual patient.
The apparatus just described cannot be used in conjunction with oxygen whiskers or masks as oxygen supplying means, and cannot serve, in this simple design, as an atomizer and respirator apparatus.
The drawback of oxygen supplying means of the prior art, can again be seen in the circumstance that the oxygen also flows during the exhalation period, causing unnecessary irritation of the patient's nostrils. It is thus understood that the patient is disturbed by the continuous oxygen flow, and it is understood that the detrimental consequence of this continuous oxygen or air flow is highly wasted consumption. Drug substance is also wasted, and the patient's environment becomes polluted.